Wedding Hells (Schooled in Magic Book 8) (32 page)

“He’s gone down to the Spellchamber, My Lady,” he said.

Emily thanked him and hurried down the stairs to the spellchamber. It was heavily warded, suggesting Jade didn’t want company; she twanged her magic against the wards, identifying herself, and waited. There was a long pause before two of the wards unlocked themselves, allowing her to open the door and step into the chamber. Inside, Jade was tearing apart a pair of training dummies, blasting one of them with fire as the other whirled around to strike him from behind. Emily lifted her hand, readying a spell, but Jade jumped to the side and blew the second dummy into pieces. They’d been taught to hold back so the dummies could be reused, Emily recalled, but there wasn’t much hope of rebuilding
that
dummy.

“Sergeant Miles would be pissed,” she said.

“He isn’t here,” Jade snarled. Sweat dripped from his face as he turned to look at her, his eyes dark with burning rage. “And
I
paid for those dummies.”

Emily frowned. There were so many pieces of debris on the floor that it was clear he’d destroyed more than
one
dummy.

“I’m not just talking about the dummies,” she said, finally.

Jade glared at her. “What
are
you talking about?”

“You losing control like this,” Emily said, after a moment. “Did they
really
hurt your feelings?”

“I didn’t fall in love because I wanted a throne of my own,” Jade said. He turned, picked up a towel and started to wipe the sweat from his brow. “If she wasn’t a princess, I’d still love her.”

“Her father has accepted you,” Emily said. She wasn’t so sure about Queen Marlena, but she hadn’t been able to have a private chat with the queen. “There’s nothing that band of swaggering idiots can do about it.”

“They can try to undermine my position,” Jade said. “Or hers, for that matter.”

“She’s going to be queen,” Emily said, flatly. “It’s a little late to claim she’s a royal bastard.”

“King Randor would have checked,” Jade said. He flushed as he turned back to face Emily, tossing the towel across the room into a basket. “Do you realize he sat me down for the talk?”

Emily felt her own face heat. She knew the facts of life - she’d known them a long time before Shadye had kidnapped her - but the thought of sitting down with her future father-in-law to talk about sex was embarrassing as hell. Somehow, she couldn’t imagine General Pollack talking to her about sex. His wife would have to do it, surely. If, of course, they didn’t expect Emily to
already
know the facts of life. Magicians were meant to experiment, after all.

“No,” she said. Jade had been a reasonably handsome teenager in a school where casual dating was common. She found it hard to believe he hadn’t lost his virginity a long time before Alassa had started at Whitehall. “Didn’t you already know how to do it?”

“Not
that
,” Jade said. “He wanted to assure me that Alassa was actually his daughter and check that I knew how to confirm parentage. Any child we have in the future will need to be confirmed as mine and hers, even though she carried the baby to term. He even had me perform the spells on Alassa to
prove
she was his.”

Emily blinked. “He wanted to confirm to you that she was his daughter?”

“Yes,” Jade said. “He said it was very important that there were no disputes over parentage at all.”

“Madness,” Emily muttered. She knew for a fact that Randor had spent years - and dozens of mistresses - trying for a male child. If he hadn’t restricted his philandering to noblewomen, he might even have succeeded. “If Alassa had a child, she’d
know
the child would be hers.”

“Yeah,” Jade said. “But the rules would appear to be different for noblewomen.”

Emily rolled her eyes. She’d wondered why Randor didn’t simply pick a healthy male baby from an orphanage, adopt the child and swear blind that the child was a bastard son. It wasn’t as if Queen Marlena was in any position to object - and besides, failing to deliver a male son was a crime in the eyes of the kingdom. If Randor
had
managed to impregnate a noblewoman, the queen might have found herself put aside. Alassa, on the other hand...

“And what would happen,” she said, “if Alassa’s child wasn’t yours?”

“Her father seemed to believe I should cover it up,” Jade said. “You know one of those bastards--” he turned and hurled a fireball into the wards “--even suggested she wouldn’t let me sleep with her?”

“I think you shouldn’t pay attention to them,” Emily said, as the flames faded back into nothingness. If the stag night had been half as bad as he was suggesting, she was surprised he hadn’t killed the lot of them. The king might not bat an eyelid at a display of killing magics from his court wizard. “Alassa can be headstrong at times, but she’s a good friend and...and I think she’ll bring a great deal of commitment to your marriage, when you finally tie the knot.”

“It made it
real
, you know,” Jade said. “Even being here--” he waved a hand at the regenerating wards “--wasn’t the same as going out with them. This is a whole new world for me.”

“Your father is a knight,” Emily pointed out.

“My father didn’t even settle down to raise me,” Jade countered. “My first memory is being on the road with my parents. I don’t think he even noticed when I went to Whitehall.”

“I’m sure he did,” Emily said.

“He’s obsessed with proving himself against monsters,” Jade said. “One day, he’s going to try to hunt a necromancer and get blasted to ashes for his trouble.”

He shook his head. “And even though he’s a knight, Emily, he isn’t part of
this
kingdom...”

“He doesn’t have to be,” Emily said. “You still have noble blood.”

“Not as noble as some of the idiots here,” Jade observed.

“That’s why they’re idiots,” Emily said. She held up a hand before he could object. “You are an experienced combat sorcerer who completed his training in record time. You have a string of high marks in Whitehall, genuine practical experience thanks to Master Grey, and the love of the Crown Princess. She
chose
you when she could have chosen a foreign prince and avoided all of this hassle. No matter what titles those idiots have, you’re worth ten of them and they know it. They’re putting you down because they know they’ll never be able to rise to your level.”

“They don’t have magic,” Jade said.

“It isn’t magic that’s the issue,” Emily said. “It’s
nobility
. And you are
nobler
than any of them.”

Jade smiled. “Flattery will get you nowhere,” he said. “Emily...”

Emily cut him off. “I seem to remember a Sixth Year student, doing Martial Magic for the first time, gently helping a First Year student who didn’t have the slightest idea what she was doing,” she reminded him. “You could have ignored that student, or tried to drive her away because she’d bring your grade down, but instead you tried to help. And then, when Shadye attacked the school, you fought like a mad bastard and helped save countless lives.”

She took a breath. “Master Grey took you on walkabout, while you were doing your apprenticeship, and I haven’t heard anything
bad
about it. Even the nastiest teacher I know...”

“He
did
try to kill you,” Jade injected. “You’re biased.”

Emily ignored him. “Even the nastiest teacher I know thought highly of you,” she said. “I don’t believe Master Grey would have given you your mastery if he thought you didn’t deserve it. There is
nothing
that makes you unsuitable for Alassa’s hand; you’re calm, competent, unencumbered, and a perfect foil for her. And they know it.”

She met his eyes. “Every one of those jackasses probably hoped he would marry the princess,” she concluded. “They’re pissed at you because
you
came in and won her heart - and they’re too stupid to realize that your marriage actually benefits them. Who
cares
what they think?”

Jade looked doubtful. “Do you really believe that no one cares about them?”

“I believe that
I
don’t give a damn about them,” Emily said. “And neither should you.”

She looked down at the smouldering remains of the dummy. “And you being married to Alassa may be helpful in the long run. Have you been following the news?”

“I’ve been trying to track down whoever produced those leaflets,” Jade said. “So far, I’ve managed to get precisely nowhere. I even tried to get picked up like you, but their wards detected me and they scampered.”

“I wasn’t trying to hide,” Emily said.
That
was odd. Jade would presumably have masked his signature perfectly, while neither she nor Frieda had done anything to keep their powers
completely
under wraps. Another magician should have been able to recognize them
as
magicians even if he didn’t know them personally. “What did you do?”

“I masked, wore commoner clothes...it was such a perfect disguise that the Royal Guard tried to shake me down for a bribe,” Jade said. He smiled ruefully. “But it didn’t fool the rebels. They got away before I realized my cover had been blown.”

“At least they didn’t try to kill you,” Emily said. She considered the different possibilities for a moment. Had the rebels doubted they could kill Jade? Or had they determined that he might even be on their side, if approached properly? “Do you have any idea who’s behind it?”

“Someone very skilled, as I told you earlier,” Jade said. “Other than that...nothing. I tried speaking to the handful of magicians in the city, but none of them knew anything they were willing to admit. Whoever we’re dealing with is a newcomer who has managed to remain apart from the rest of the magical community.”

“And someone who might have a source in the palace,” Emily offered. “If they heard about
our
adventure, they might have tightened up security before you could try to sneak into their meeting.”

“It’s a possibility,” Jade sighed. “There are just too many possible suspects.”

Emily nodded. The servants were the obvious candidates - they heard everything, while their lords and masters saw them as part of the furniture - but they weren’t the only ones. It wasn’t impossible that a nobleman, perhaps one who saw opportunity in civil unrest, would be working with the rebels. Emily could easily imagine one of the barons trying to co-opt the rebel movement and turn it into a weapon against the king. The aristocrats
already
had networks of spies and informants they could offer to the rebels if necessary.

They might think the rebels are bound to win
, she thought, although it seemed unlikely. She couldn’t name a single aristocrat, apart from herself, who would believe the outcome could be anything other than a bloody slaughter to put the commoners in their place.
Or they may be hoping the rebels will rise up so they can have the pleasure of crushing them.

“Good luck,” she said. She glanced up at the wards. “Do I have time to shoot off a few spells?”

Jade gave her a sharp look. “You’ve been in here more times than I would consider healthy,” he said, carefully. His wards would have registered her comings and goings. “Is there something you’ve been meaning not to tell me?”

“The duel expanded my power reserves,” Emily said, reluctantly. She was mildly surprised that neither Alassa nor Imaiqah had noticed, although both of them had been very busy since she’d returned to Whitehall. “I get headaches when I don’t use the
mana
.”

Jade’s eyes went wide. “Are you all right?”

“Just headachy, some of the time,” Emily said. “I was told to keep expending magic until I learned to cope.”

“That’s
dangerous
,” Jade said. He sounded worried. “There’s a
reason
trying to boost your own magic is considered dangerous.”

“I know,” Emily said. One didn’t need to try necromancy to court madness. “I didn’t actually
plan
to enhance my power.”

“Good,” Jade said. “You’d have been expelled from Whitehall on the spot.”

He smiled, suddenly. “Would you care for a joust?”

Emily hesitated. “Alassa wouldn’t thank me if I hurt you or vice versa,” she said. She’d never liked jousting, let alone dueling. “I just want to burn off some energy before my head explodes.”

“Get to it, then,” Jade said. He met her eyes. “Have you told anyone else about your enhanced magic?”

“I was advised not to,” Emily said. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t,” Jade pledged. He held out a hand, as if he intended to clap her on the shoulder, then thought better of it. “And thank you for your words of advice.”

“Just try to remember that she loves you,” Emily said. She frowned as a thought occurred to her. “You might want to tell her what happened last night before she hears a distorted fifth-hand version of it from someone else.”

Jade winced. “And what happened to
her
last night?”

“Alassa had a little too much to drink,” Emily said. “And that’s all you’ll hear from anyone.”

She doubted either Imaiqah or Frieda would say anything more and there were no other witnesses. Unless King Randor had been spying on them...she shuddered at the thought, then told herself it wasn’t likely. A monitoring ward to make sure that no one got seriously injured was probably as far as he would go.

“Glad to hear it,” Jade muttered.

Emily gave him a smile, then stepped into the wards, braced herself and hurled the first spell.

“I
’VE HEARD ABOUT FOUR DIFFERENT VERSIONS
of the story,” Frieda told Emily, as they sat down together for the evening meal. “The most amusing one claims that Jade turned the entire pub into beer and drank it all.”

Emily shook her head in disbelief. “The entire pub, or just the patrons?”

“I’m not sure,” Frieda said. She sounded disgustingly cheerful for someone who’d drunk far too much the night before. “Whichever one sounds more outrageous.”